Fear
POV: Eloisa
"Know that I'm going to make you ask for death then," Leonardo says coldly.
Everything happens fast, I see Leonardo pull out a knife and stick it in Gael's hand who screams loudly in pain.
I scream loudly in shock and fear.
I try to get up from the chair, but Giorgio holds my shoulders and keeps me in place.
"Let me go, let me go," I scream at him.
He looks at me angrily and lowers himself to my eye level.
"If you close your eyes or try to run away, the next ones will be your friends," Giorgio threatens me and I tremble.
Who are they? What will happen to me?
Elena got what she deserved and I don't regret what I did to her. But the consequences this is bringing me are not good.
I look at Gael who is writhing in pain while Leonardo turns the knife in his hand. I really want to turn my face away or close my eyes, but Giorgio is watching me and will alert Leonardo if I make any move.
"Leonardo, please, please stop," I beg my brother.
Leonardo looks at me with hatred and pulls the knife from Gael's hand.
"You are not worthy of being called Valentini, even after everything you still defend that piece of shit" he shouts and then makes a deep cut on Gael's cheek who screams in pain.
Tears stream down my eyes and I desperately want to close my eyes.
"Giovanni, tie him up with chains, I'm sure the others want to have fun" Leonardo says smiling and I see the door open.
My relatives fill the room and each one grabs a knife.
Giorgio pulls me by the arm so that I can still have a view of everything that happens to Gael who is chained to the wall.
My relatives cut Gael as if he were a piece of cloth. They cut his entire body and I see Aunt Isadora ripping off his penis.
I hear his screams of agony and I am traumatized by the whole scene. There is a lot of blood.
When they finish, Gael is unrecognizable and by some miracle alive.
I am shaking with fear and when Giorgio lets go of me I fall, unable to stay standing.
"Get that bastard out of my sight, I'm going to wash my hands before continuing," Grandpa says coldly.
Men enter and take the unconscious Gael to another place.
"Eloisa, are you okay?" Luca asks with false sympathy and approaches.
I pull away from him, dragging myself away quickly. They are monsters.
"Pathetic, you have the courage to hurt your own sister, but you can't deal with the consequences," Vitorio says, looking at me with disgust.
Consequences? They almost killed someone seconds ago, what kind of punishment is that?
"Who are you people?" my voice trembles.
My relatives smile at me devilishly and Lorenzo answers me.
"We are the Italian Mafia, my dear," his tone is mocking and cold at the same time.
I look at each of them and see the amusement and hatred in their eyes. I know they loved what they just did and they don't regret it.
"Get up, we have more things to take care of before you receive your punishment," Uncle Massimo orders impatiently and starts to leave the room.
I walk quickly, afraid of making any punishment they may have for me worse.
I follow them to a room where Alana, Sheila and three other boys from the soccer team are. They look scared and tremble even more when we stop in front of them.
"Were those bitches the ones who attacked Elena?" Aunt Andreia asks irritably.
"Yes, from the security camera footage, they were all involved in Eloisa's prank," Antoni says coldly and angrily.
My aunts look at the girls and then talk to each other.
"Hand me the hot iron, I think it will be enough for them," says Aunt Isadora and the girls start to cry.
I see men coming in with a kind of fireplace where there are irons on the coals.
Aunt Andreia and Esther each take one of the irons and approach the girls, evaluating them carefully.
"I think the face will be a good reminder," comments Aunt Isadora, watching, and my other aunts agree.
Giovanni holds Sheila who is struggling, Dante moves her hair away and holds her exposed face to my Aunt Andreia.
"Let this serve as a reminder of what you did, and if one day I find out that you tried to do any surgery to repair the damage, know that I will do much worse," says Aunt Andreia before placing the iron on her face.
The sound of the burning skin and Sheila's scream turn my stomach.
Alana cries next to her cousin in fear while the others watch with satisfaction.
The boys drop Sheila to the ground and she sobs and shakes in pain. My cousins hold Alana this time as she screams in terror.
My aunt Esther shuts her up with a hard slap across the face.
"You shouldn't scream, since you're paying for what you did." My aunt whispers to Alana and presses the iron against her cheek.
Alana screams and passes out in pain. This time I vomit at the scene and no one comes near me.
They want to make me suffer, they want me to understand that I shouldn't have done that to Elena.
But the problem is that my only regret is having been caught.
When I recover, I see Lorenzo appear with a gun, he points it at the boys and shoots each of them in the knees.
"You guys are off the football team now," he says seriously and I feel my head go light.
The last scene I have is of Leonardo laughing at me.
I wake up with pain in my body, it feels like I've been in the same position for a long time.
I open my eyes and find myself tied to a chair in the same interrogation room where they tortured Gael.
I try to free my hands, but the ropes are too strong.
I look around and Grandpa is sitting in front of me, studying me.
"When I saw you, I suspected that you were just like your mother," he says in a somber tone. "Your deceitful manner and eyes reminded me of her."
I look at him, afraid of what he might want to do to me.
"Did you know that my son was separated because his mother cheated on him?" he asks me, calmly resting his hands on the table in front of me.
I nod in response and he smiles.
"Have you ever heard of heteroparental twins?" he asks, but doesn't wait for me to answer. "It's when each twin has different genetic material because they have a different father than the other."
I look at him, not surprised by the information, and he laughs.
"And you obviously already knew that." His smile disappears and he looks at me seriously. "You're not a Valentini, I don't know who your father is and I don't care."
He stands up and unbuttons the suit he's wearing.
"You may still be the boys' and Elena's sister, but you're not part of our family, and if I know the boys I helped raise well, I can tell you that you're not even part of theirs."
I glare at him.
Yes, I always knew I was their half-sister. That was the reason my parents treated me differently than Elena.
Elena went through all my parents' lessons to learn not to be like the Valentinis and to be accepted into our family. My real father's family.
"Well, now that we've got that out of the way," he says, and as he does, my aunts enter the room with smiles.
"Leave her to us, father-in-law," Aunt Isadora says, smiling at me. "We'll teach her not to mess with a member of our family. Even though she's our boys' sister, she has to learn."
Grandpa agrees and leaves the room wishing me good luck.
I see that Aunt Andreia has a box in her hands, she takes the box and puts it on the table. When she opens the box I shudder.
Aunt Esther takes a pair of scissors and stands behind me, she cuts my hair unevenly at ear level. My other aunts smile as they watch this.
"You saw your sister being tortured for years," Aunt Isadora says angrily. "I remember every scar on her body, the burn marks and the cuts." She steps away and lights a cigarette.
I try to get out of the chair, but I can't, tears of fear streaming down my eyes.
"I think I can reproduce each one on your body." Aunt Isadora comes closer and lifts my blouse.
She puts out the cigarette on my abdomen and I scream in pain.
"Cut off her clothes, Elena had scars all over her body" says Aunt Esther with a small knife in her hand and Aunt Andreia starts cutting my clothes with scissors.
"We have a lot of work to do" says Aunt Isadora and relights the cigarette.
They cut my flesh, burn me and whip me until I have the same marks Elena had.
When they finish, I am on the verge of unconsciousness.
"You are lucky we are not monsters to do what you did today to your sister" says Aunt Andreia holding my face.
"But Elena lived through fifteen years of torture" I hear Dante's voice and raise my head.
All my relatives are in the room, they look at me with hatred and disgust.
My body trembles involuntarily and I want to run away from this room or die before they touch me.
"You will live here, Eloisa, for fifteen years, and every time your wounds close, we will reopen them so that you will never forget what you did," Lorenzo says, and I can see that he hates me, that he no longer considers me his sister.
"And when the fifteen years are up, Elena will decide what to do with you," Grandpa says, and my blood boils.
That bitch who will decide my future in the end?
"Your final punishment, Eloisa, will be given by your twin sister in fifteen years," Leonardo says with satisfaction. "Pray she has mercy."